Another cracker from Hard Case Crime. I wondered, as I read, how much was De Palma (director of Scarface, Carrie, etc) and how much was co-writer Lehman? I got to the end and all was clear. The storyline was definitely De Palma, complete with Hitchcockian twist, and the writing was probably mostly Lehman. This was far from a bad thing. One is a visual artist, the other word-based. They come together beautifully.
It's a story hung around a brief affair twenty years ago, between stewardess Jenny Cours and politician Lee Rogers. A casual encounter today leads nowhere in itself but has massive consequences down the line. Jenny's daughter Fanny, a student videographer, gets herself attached to Rogers' re-election campaign. This causes headaches for Rogers' fixer Barton Brock. But first Brock has to strongarm a quick separation for a Las Vegas millionaire, Bruce Diamond, and his drop-dead gorgeous latest wife, Elizabeth. Elizabeth has had an affair with photo-journalist Nick Sculley - they sat next to one another on the plane - but leaves him high and dry in Vegas and starts a new life as an online agony aunt who she sits next to on the bus. Nick, heartbroken, accepts a gig as onset photographer for a remake of Vertigo being shot in Paris (I did say it was Hitchcockian, right?), where Fanny Cours also shows up, having been booted from the Rogers campaign.
Actually, it's more complicated than that. Gloriously so.
Even the structure is cinematic. Short chapters, one or two pages mostly, jump cutting between storylines, all written present tense. Another, very unusual twist: Are Snakes Necessary was originally published in France, in French, in 2018. There is apparently a second novel stuck in works.
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